Yesterday, President Obama sent out his first publicly observable tweet starting off a new form of online Town Hall meeting, a Twitter town hall:

http://a0.twimg.com/profile_background_images/199764862/wh_twitter_back.jpg) no-repeat #f2f2f2; padding: 20px; margin: 8px 0;">
The White House in order to reduce the deficit,what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep – bo

The Twitter Town Hall meeting was the second large-scale social media event sponsored by one of the most influential social media companies in the U.S.: About three months ago, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook.com, has sponsored and moderated a Facebook Town Hall meeting live. This time the online Town Hall meeting was sponsored and moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey:

[picture linked from The Guardian]

The most tweeted question was similar to what we have seen during the Open For Questions event: The most tweeted question – retweeted here as an example – with close to 5,000 retweets was:

http://a2.twimg.com/profile_background_images/141026134/heaven.jpg) no-repeat #131516; padding: 20px; margin: 8px 0;">
Robert Wilson #AskObama Would you consider legalizing marijuana to increase revenue and save tax dollars by freeing up crowded prisons, court rooms?

The tweet was not answered by the President, even though it seems very different to the pro-marihuana agenda many people were pushing during the Open For Questions event. This one seems to be intelligent, with implications for overcrowded prisons and a sense that the consequences of legalizing marihuana might actually have a positive long-lasting impact on the legal system in the U.S. and could save government a lot of money.

The President also addressed a question posted by the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, giving the Republican party a minute in the limelight as well:

http://a2.twimg.com/profile_background_images/43391556/twitter_boehner_b...) no-repeat #9ae4e8; padding: 20px; margin: 8px 0;">
John Boehner After embarking on a record spending binge that’s left us deeper in debt, where are the jobs? #AskObama

According to the graphic below, the submitted questions to the hashtag #askobama slowly picked up during the days leading up to the Twitter Town Hall, but then rapidly increased on the day before the actual event. The following statistics were published on http://obama.twitsprout.com/ and linked here: